What used to be one of Alabama’s favorite coastal spring fisheries, sight fishing for cobia along the beaches from late March into May, has all but disappeared in recent years, and federal fishery managers say it’s likely because too many of us have harvested too many of these tasty and hard-fighting critters.
The fishery was something that just about anybody with a seaworthy boat could get in on, and in the heyday of the fishery, it was not uncommon to see 18-foot center consoles with stepladders strapped down on the front deck to act as sighting towers for cobia during the spring run along the beach. Dozens of boats joined the parade daily.
The fish follow a very predictable and well-known pattern in their spring migrations, moving along the north edge of the Gulf from east to west, more or less following the baitfish schools that migrate up from South Florida each spring. Their habit of cruising just inches below the surface, sometimes in schools of a half-dozen or more, proved their on-doing.
The fish were very easy to see, especially from an elevated position, and were also very easy to fool most of the time, though the last stragglers became progressively smarter. In fact, many cobia were caught right at boatside after following their hooked schoolmate to the boat.
The result was inevitable: too many anglers fishing a species too easy to catch—and very good to eat—almost always has the same result. Numbers have plummeted to the point that most coastal anglers don’t even bother looking for cobia on a sustained basis, though they’re still glad to present a bait or lure to any that pop up around a marker or above an artificial reef.
The average size of the fish has also dropped precipitously, along with the drop in catch numbers. It used to be common to catch cobia of 40 pounds and more during the spring run, but these days catching one that’s even of legal size, 36 inches to the middle of the tail fork, is rare.
Now, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has voted to reduce the daily possession limit to one fish per person and to create a two fish per vessel limit for both recreational and commercial sectors. Whether that’s enough of a belt-tightening remains to be seen.
Kevin Anson, Chief Biologist with the Alabama Marine Resources Division (MRD) and Alabama’s representative on the Gulf Council, said a recent update on a cobia stock assessment prompted the action. The assessment said the stock is undergoing overfishing but is not technically “overfished”.
“Overfished means the overall population of fish is below a level that allows maximum sustainable harvests on a continuing basis,” Anson said. “But cobia’s current rate of annual fishing mortality is too high, which, over time if left unchecked, could lead to an overfished condition. That’s why it is considered to be undergoing overfishing.
One of the fastest-growing fish in the Gulf, cobia can reach a 36-inch fork length in as little as three years, according to the Gulf Council. A one-fish bag limit would reduce the recreational sector catch in the Gulf Zone by 1.2 percent, and the 2-fish vessel limit would reduce the recreational sector catch by 9 percent, according the Council statisticians.
Anson said the Gulf Council cited several reasons for not increasing the minimum size in the Gulf Zone.
“It was just a few years ago that we increased the size limit in the Gulf from 33 to 36 inches,” Anson said. “There hasn’t been enough data compiled to see if there was a positive impact. Anecdotally, we know the population is much less than what it had been 10-15 years ago.
“If you increase the size, you would keep more females as they are generally larger than males, and the larger fish are breeder-size females. Since this is a joint amendment, we want to try to get to consistent regulations even though we are two different councils. For consistent management in Florida, I think it would be beneficial for the size limit to be 36 inches in all of their waters.”
Anson also said NOAA Fisheries is using a new survey methodology to determine recreational fishing effort. The new method is called the Marine Recreational Information Program – Fishing Effort Survey (MRIP-FES), which discontinued the previous landline telephone survey of randomly selected coastal households and implemented a mail survey of randomly selected coastal and inland mailing addresses. The MRIP-FES method indicates a significant increase in fishing effort compared to the previous survey.
“The MRIP-FES has shown almost twice the landings for most of the high-profile species compared to the old telephone methodology,” he said. “Because of the increased potential for increased volatility in recreational landings and because of the prolonged period of reduced catches, an annual catch target (ACT) has been proposed for use in management to work as a buffer to ensure we don’t go over the annual catch limit.”
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources reporter David Rainer contributed to this report.
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November 14, 2021 at 03:00PM
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More restrictions coming for cobia fishing along Alabama Gulf Coast - AL.com
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